be in their turn parents, they reproduce, in their own helpless little ones, the grosser traits of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities that must either be overcome, or reduce him to a loathsome wreck?
In the propagation of the human species is there not a greater responsibility, a more solemn charge, than in the culture of your garden, or raising stock to increase your flocks and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be transmitted to children.
The formation and education of mortals must improve before the millennium can arrive. The most important education of the infant is to keep it mentally free from impurity. The Divine Mind best governs the human body, and develops it harmoniously. Mind, not matter, should govern man, from the cradle to the grave.
If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant amusement, always to have some demand on hand, — to be fed, rocked, tossed, or talked to, — those parents should not, in after years, complain of their children's fretfulness or frivolity, which they have themselves occasioned.
Yielding one's thoughts to the undue contemplation of physical wants induces those wants. A single requirement, beyond what is necessary to meet the most modest needs of the babe, is hurtful. Mind can regulate the condition of the stomach, bowels, food, temperature, of your child, far better than matter can do so. Your views, and those of other people on these subjects, produce their good or bad results in the health of your child.
